{"id":145222,"date":"2026-02-25T20:34:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T20:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/145222\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T20:34:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T20:34:06","slug":"nasa-reveals-identity-of-astronaut-who-suffered-medical-incident-nbc-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/145222\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA reveals identity of astronaut who suffered medical incident \u2013 NBC New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASA revealed that astronaut Mike Fincke was the crew member who suffered a medical incident at the International Space Station in January, which prompted the agency to carry out the first evacuation due to a medical issue<\/a> in the space station\u2019s 25-year history.<\/p>\n

The rare decision to cut a mission short<\/a> and bring Fincke and three other crew members home early made for a dramatic week in space early this year. <\/p>\n

In a statement released by NASA<\/a> \u201cat the request of Fincke,\u201d the veteran astronaut said he experienced a medical event on Jan. 7 \u201cthat required immediate attention\u201d from his space station crew members.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to their quick response and the guidance of our NASA flight surgeons, my status quickly stabilized,\u201d Fincke said in the statement.<\/p>\n

The medical incident forced NASA to cancel a spacewalk that had been planned for Jan. 8. That same day, the agency said it was considering a rare early return<\/a> for the four-person Crew-11 mission, which included Fincke and fellow NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. <\/p>\n

At the time, NASA said the situation was stable, but did not provide additional details about the incident or the affected crew member due to medical privacy concerns.<\/p>\n

Fincke, Cardman, Yui and Platonov had been living and working aboard the International Space Station since early August and were originally expected to stay at the orbiting outpost until late February.<\/p>\n

Instead, top NASA officials and the agency\u2019s chief health and medical officer opted to bring the astronauts back to Earth a week after the incident occurred. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter further evaluation, NASA determined the safest course was an early return for Crew-11 \u2014 not an emergency, but a carefully coordinated plan to be able to take advantage of advanced medical imaging not available on the space station,\u201d Fincke said in the statement.<\/p>\n

The four Crew-11 astronauts departed the space station on Jan. 14<\/a>, undocking from the ISS in the same SpaceX Dragon capsule that they flew to the space station. After a nearly 11-hour journey, the capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean<\/a>, off the coast of San Diego, in the early morning hours of Jan. 15.<\/p>\n

In a post-landing news briefing, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said it was a \u201cserious situation\u201d in orbit, but added that the crew member in question had been safe and stable ever since.<\/p>\n

In his statement, Fincke thanked his Crew-11 colleagues, along with NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, who were also aboard the space station at the time and are still in space. Fincke also thanked the teams at NASA, SpaceX and the medical professionals at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir professionalism and dedication ensured a positive outcome,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fincke ended his statement by saying he is \u201cdoing very well\u201d and still actively involved with standard post-flight reconditioning at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston. <\/p>\n

\u201cSpaceflight is an incredible privilege, and sometimes it reminds us just how human we are,\u201d he said. \u201cThank you for all your support.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA revealed that astronaut Mike Fincke was the crew member who suffered a medical incident at the International…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6785,9,11,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-145222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-nasa","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}